Nanostructure-films, such as those comprising interconnected networks of nanotubes, nanowires, nanoparticles and/or graphene flakes, have attracted a great deal of recent attention due to their exceptional material properties. Specifically, films comprising carbon nanotubes network(s) can exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, as well as efficient heat conduction. These novel properties make them potentially useful in a wide variety of applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science.
For example, transparent conducting films comprising interconnected network(s) of carbon nanotubes (e.g., SWNTs and/or FWNTs) may soon replace indium-tin-oxide (ITO) as an industry-standard transparent electrode material. Applications for such a material include, but are not limited to, touch screens (e.g., analog, resistive, improved analog, X/Y matrix, capacitive), flexible displays (e.g., electro-phoretics, electro-luminescence, electrochromatic), rigid displays (e.g., liquid crystal (LCD), plasma (PDP), organic light emitting diode (LED)), solar cells (e.g., silicon (amorphous, protocrystalline, nanocrystalline), cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), copper indium selenide (CIS), gallium arsenide (GaAs), light absorbing dyes, quantum dots, organic semiconductors (e.g., polymers, small-molecule compounds)), fiber-optic communications (e.g., electro-optic and opto-electric modulators) and microfluidics (e.g. electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD)).
Many transparent electrode (e.g., displays) and other applications (e.g., thin-film transistors (TFTs), RFID tags) will require the nanostructure-films used therein to be patterned. Currently, nanostructure-film patterning is accomplished using photolithography and conventional chemical etching, lift-off methods (e.g., using a photoresist coating or printer toner), transfer stamping (e.g. using a PDMS stamp) and/or printing (e.g., inkjet). However, alternate techniques will be needed to meet the myriad of application-specific patterning requirements sure to arise in this burgeoning field (e.g., high resolution, high-throughput, high-selectivity, low impact).